Batman: Arkham Knight - PlayStation 4

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In Batman: Arkham Knight on the PlayStation 4, the Scarecrow returns to unite an impressive roster of super villains, including Penguin, Two-Face and Harley Quinn, to destroy The Dark Knight forever. Batman: Arkham Knight introduces Rocksteady's uniquely designed version of the Batmobile, which is drivable for the first time in the franchise. The addition of this legendary vehicle, combined with the acclaimed gameplay of the Batman Arkham series, offers gamers the ultimate and complete Batman experience as they tear through the streets and soar across the skyline of the entirety of Gotham City.

8.1

Batman: Arkham Knight on the PlayStation 4 may end up becoming the defining release in the Batman video game series. Developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros, Arkham Knight found its way to the PS4 this past June to nearly instantaneous applause. The hook for Batman: Arkham Knight was that Scarecrow has returned with a crew of super villains at his side in order to take Gotham down once in for all. Combining gorgeous graphics, faithful recreations, and an awe inspiring campaign, Arkham Knight aimed for the fences and cleared the yard. We dug into Arkham Knight with greedy hands and immediately fell in love. Check out our review for Batman: Arkham Knight.

At this point Gotham knows what trouble is and the latest entry in the Batman series, Arkham Knight, turns the word on its head. The urban metropolis that has so often been hammered into a kneeling beatdown has been taken over by villains and the fear that they funnel into the city. The police force is lost and doesn’t know what to do and only one man can start to turn the tide on Gotham’s darkest hour. In Batman: Arkham Knight the focus is unwaveringly on the depths that Bruce Wayne, as Batman, will go to in order to protect his city. He explores the depths of his seemingly unlimited supply of wealth in order to create an array of gadgets that would make even the most fervent luddite blush. But there will be no blushing from any character in Arkham Knight as Batman is facing a group of villains who have a plan to end him for good.

This is easily the darkest entry in the entire Batman series and the mood, texture, and graphics are appropriately macabre. Everything is washed out in shades of black, white, grey with violent slaps of red and orange when explosions or blood, or both, make their appearance. Wonderful shading by the team at Rocksteady manages to emphasize the balanced nuance between grim and beautiful, bringing the city alive in a way that we never thought it could be. The PS4 gamely chugs on with this beautiful experience, showcasing all of the gorgeous graphics at once even when things get manic and explosive. For an open world game we don’t think the experience could get any more beautiful.

Continuing our line of thought in speaking only of the aesthetics, the score to the game is equally wonderful. Balancing Nolan-esque droning tones with the talented voice acting cast, spearheaded by Kevin Conroy returning as Batman, the game never drops a moment to give you an emphatic and sonic punch in the ears. Every iconic character is voiced nearly to perfection which makes the game perfectly immersive while being almost surreal in its execution of these Batman comic legends.

Batman: Arkham Knight is an open world experience that emphasizes your need to explore the environment. You’ll drive, run, fly, and soar through a city that needs your help. The iconic Batmobile makes its triumphant return to the screen and it is a wonderful joy to drive and we’ll talk about that a little more later. The city is mostly empty as it has been evacuated following threats from Scarecrow alluding to another dangerous toxin being released into the public. So as you traverse through the town it takes on an almost nightmarish quality. You see the city that Gotham could be but it is ghostly and empty with only enemies around the corner.

The prettiest game in the world is functionally useless if the controls don’t do anything. Fortunately Arkham Knight is as finely tuned as the aforementioned Batmobile and you’ll be fighting, driving, flying, and kicking your way through the title with natural ease. The game required Rocksteady to master several different forms of travel and at least semi realistic physics for each of them which in and of itself is pretty challenging, yet it all works here. While traveling is definitely a focal point of the game, combat still rules the day.

Fighting in Batman: Arkham Knight is as smooth as it has ever been. The semi realistic, free flowing hand to hand combat is as fluid as it can get. You work with combos, Bat-gadgets, and gigantic finishing maneuvers when beating up your opponents. We particularly enjoyed the Disruptor Rifle and the voice emulating device. The Disruptor Rifle disables opposing weapons while the voice emulating device allows you to copy an enemy voice in order to use it against them or their allies later in the game. There are a ton of gadgets and you’ll end up using them all at some point for a good reason. There are even moments where you will switch characters, leaving Batman behind in order to take on another hero. These heroes control well and in a unique fashion and they add depth to the gameplay that we haven’t seen from some of the older titles.

With a game as gorgeously realized as this you have to hope that there is enough content to pull gamers along for an enjoyable amount of time. Fortunately there is a ton to do. When you aren’t roaming the environment you will be dealing with stealth missions, hacking sequences, hard puzzles, and some truly elite level design that keeps you always looking around trying to find the right way to go but never feeling frustrated when you have to take a secondary route.

Open world games tend to suffer in regards to their pacing. Many times you’ll have moments of intense action only to spend the next hour slogging around not doing much of anything. In Arkham Knight you are always doing something and that something always feels important. Whether you are scanning for clues at a crime scene or punching your way through a group of thugs, your mission and your time is well used and parlayed for a good reason.

Batman: Arkham Knight is a love-letter to comic book fans and those diehards that wanted a proper send off to this incredible Batman series.